CHAP, x.] FUEGIANS ON BOARD. 197 



was one chief .inducement to Captain Fitz Roy to undertake our 

 present voyage; and before the Admiralty had resolved to send out 

 this expedition, Captain Fitz Eoy had generously chartered a vessel, 

 and would himself have taken them back. The natives were 

 accompanied by a missionary, R. Matthews; of whom and of the 

 natives, Captain Fitz Roy has published a full and excellent account. 

 Two men, one of whom died in England of the small-pox, a boy and 

 a little girl, were originally taken; and we had now on board, York 

 Minster, Jemmy Button (whose name expresses his purchase- 

 money), and Fuegia Basket. York Minster was a full-grown, short, 

 thick, powerful man : his disposition was reserved, taciturn, morose, 

 and when excited violently passionate; his affections were very 

 strong towards a few friends on board ! his intellect good. Jemmy 

 Button was a universal favourite, but likewise passionate ; the 

 expression of his face at once showed his nice disposition. He was 

 merry and often laughed, and was remarkably sympathetic with 

 any one in pain : when the water was rough, I was often a little sea- 

 sick, and he used to come to me and say in a plaintive voice, 

 " Poor, poor fellow ! " but the notion, after his aquatic life, of a 

 man being sea-sick, was too ludicrous, and he was generally obliged 

 to turn on one side to hide a smile or laugh, and then he would 

 repeat his " Poor, poor fellow ! " He was of a patriotic disposition ; 

 and he liked to praise his own tribe and country, in which he truly 

 said there were "plenty of trees,'' and he abused all the other 

 tribes: he stoutly declared that there was no Devil in his land. 

 Jemmy was short, thick, and fat, but vain of his personal appear- 

 ance ; he used always to wear gloves, his hair was neatly cut, and 

 he was distressed if his well-polished shoes were dirtied. He was 

 fond of admiring himself in a looking glass; and a merry-faced 

 little Indian boy from the Rio Negro, whom we had for some 

 months on board, soon perceived this, and used to mock him : 

 Jemmy, who was always rather jealous of the attention paid to this 

 little boy, did not at all like this, and used to say, with rather a 

 contemptuous twist of his head, " Too much skylark." It seems 

 yet wonderful to me, when I think over all his many goad qualities, 

 that he should have been of the same race, and doubtless partaken 

 of the same character, with the miserable, degraded savages whom 

 we first met here. Lastly, Fuegia Basket was a nice, modest, 

 reserved young girl, with a rather pleasing but sometimes sullen 

 expression, and very quick in learning anything, especially 



